Speech
by Crazy Mishka
Summary: Xover. One Shot. Ska'ra has joined the SG-1 team and is rather taken with the new recruit from Britain; a mage named Hermione Granger. If only he could manage the correct speech to communicate his affection.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize from Harry Potter or Stargate SG-1.

Ska'ra felt the wind leave him breathless. He smiled, "Pretty."

She blushed and gave him an unsure look. She cleared her face, "Flatterer."

"What does this 'flatterer' mean?"

She blinked, flushing. Then she swallowed and looked pained. "You speak Nice Lies."

His dark brown eyes narrowed and he took a step closer. "I speak no lies, your eyes are clouded."

The golden-eyed girl narrowed her own eyes and crossed her arms, rounding her shoulders down as she frowned at him.

Ska'ra regarded her in consternation, wondering why the pretty mage doubted him. He was a man of honor; he had overcome the Goa'uld in him and joined the Stargate fighters to avenge his clan and sister. It would be wrong of him to lie.

That she accused him of such was…infuriating! He had done everything in his power to restore his name, to make up for his weakness.

He spat out a homeland word and spun from her, stalking the halls.

Ska'ra ended up with his brother, looking at Dan'iel with considering eyes. He spoke firmly, "Why does she call me this 'flatterer'? Why does she insist I speak lies? Has she heard of my past?"

Dan'iel blinked and turned to him from the work he was doing. "Who?"

"Her'mione."

"I haven't told her," the scholar said baffled.

Ska'ra huffed and sat down, arranging his weapons so he could lean back in the chair.

"Wait, she called you flatterer? What did you say to her?"

"Pretty," Ska'ra spat out petulantly.

Dan'iel's face twitched in a kind of commiserating smile. "Ska'ra, I don't know if I can really explain this to you, but I'll try." The man sighed and took off his glasses. "Hermione is from a world where she isn't considered wife material—I understand they believed that her blood made her inferior. For a woman to never be considered for anything like courting—they start to believe there is something wrong with them. Maybe she doesn't believe you because no one else has ever told her she was pretty?"

"Her blood?" Ska'ra blinked and furrowed his brow, beetling the tan skin of his forehead. Then he scoffed and threw his hair back—"I will tell her again, and again until she believes me."

Dan'iel smiled at him, "That sounds like a plan."

Ska'ra managed a smile.

A few days later of stalking the halls and waiting, he found the little mage again. Her hair was the color of the sand deeper in the dunes, a dark rich color he liked. And her skin was the bleached color of the topmost grains but smoother and cool and more inviting. But it was her eyes he loved most. They were gold, like the sun.

"Her'mione," he started, making her turn to him and look up. He smiled. "Your eyes shine gold."

She scowled. "You told me my eyes were cloudy." And then she turned and walked away.

Ska'ra blinked, stunned, and then cursed in homeland tongue and rethought his approach.

He found himself seeking out master Teal'c as the man meditated, craving that calm presence Teal'c always exuded when he found his center. The young fighter's brow furrowed in a much less pleasant task. How could he begin courting Her'mione if she didn't believe a thing he said? If he was a 'flatterer' then he couldn't be a 'suitor'?

"Your mind is troubled," Teal'c's low voice sounded as he opened his eyes and turned his head.

"I cannot talk to her proper. I mess up," The frustrated youth confessed.

Teal'c blinked. "Then listen, if you cannot talk." And the man closed his eyes and went back to meditating.

Ska'ra blinked in confusion, but slowly set his mind to figuring out this task.

He joined the gold mage in her study the next day, sitting beside her in the lab and just watching as she went about her business. He didn't know what he was listening for, but he was doing the best he could to stay silent and not offend the pretty woman.

She started glancing at him unsurely, but he stayed quiet and kept a pleasant face though he was frustrated and confused.

Then she started babbling, "I don't know what you're doing but there's really nothing interesting here, I have a lot of translating to get done of the original spells for Daniel. I don't know what you find fascinating, there's really nothing to look at…"

Ska'ra blinked and tilted his head, his wide eyes watching the woman in her nervous response. And she started to blush as she continued to ramble.

He found it cute and smiled.

Then she made a frustrated noise and stood, storming from the room with clenched fists as Carter walked in. "What just happened?"

Ska'ra scowled at the empty chair Her'mione had just been in.

Samantha cautiously sat in it, staring at him with blue eyes. "Are you okay Ska'ra?"

He looked at her, and then decided that a woman's approach might be different. So he confessed once again.

Samantha Carter smiled at him, her eyes twinkling in that way women had. "Hermione is a very special girl—you'll be good together. But why don't you try giving her something? That's what Earth boys do for their crushes." And she patted him on the shoulder and left.

But what was this 'crush'? Did the Earth boys hurt the girls they liked? He could never do that to Hermione!

But he could give her something…

Except he lived in a military base and had no way of knowing exactly what to get her if he could. She was always reading, but getting her a book would be boring. She didn't wear any jewelry, she didn't decorate her hair, and she didn't wear many different clothes…

She was unlike any woman he had seen courted.

Ska'ra hit on an epiphany, and requested an escort to the top to gather materials in the woods. He spent days working on his gift, and was very proud of the product he would give his Sun-eyes.

He presented her the dagger with a flourish, enjoying the way her eyes lit up as she examined the runes carved into the hilt and blade. She tentatively took the blade from him, looking in his eyes as she tested the weight of the dagger.

It was a small delicate thing, but strong—he had tested every stone until he found one that would be appropriate.

"You like yes?"

"I do," she said softly, staring at him.

He grinned, "Then keep. I can help you learn to use it."

She tilted her head slightly but agreed.

So he began tumbling lessons with her, teaching her how to fall and how to maneuver the small blade so she wouldn't hurt herself but manage the most damage to her enemy.

It was after one of these sessions where she'd managed to get the blade to his neck that she was grinning freely at him and he was grinning back and he thought it was perfect. Her eyes were shining. But then she blinked and her smile dropped and she scrambled off of him and from the room.

He finally went to Captain.

Jack O'Neill laughed and ruffled Ska'ra's hair. "You have to be direct. Tell her _you_ think she's pretty and you want to date her…or whatever you guys do. Tell her you will be persistent and won't change your mind. She's a nerd so she's not used to this, so that's what women like her need. But I give you points for the tumbling lessons—I never thought of using that to get close to a girl."

Ska'ra blushed. It hadn't been his original intention, but he'd definitely enjoyed those lessons. And then thought on the captain's words. While all the team had their own wisdom, he liked this honesty the best.

He was normally an honest person, so this wouldn't take much thought. But, then again, Her'mione never seemed to understand him.

Ska'ra took a week and a bit to think this over.

Hermione took that week to be more miserable. This was just like with Ronald; be a little hesitant and they took that as outright rejection and went to the next thing with a skirt. And Hermione was definitely no Lavender—she couldn't follow that act. She was lucky the elite Stargate team had heard her credentials and hired her—she'd been able to get away from her fiancée and the woman he'd cheated with.

Ska'ra was different of course. He was exotic and stunning and almost perfect. Except, well, he was a man, and they tended not to work out too well with her. And see? He was already changing his mind. Hermione had just been starting to think he was serious, but he'd completely ignored her for the last two weeks, there hadn't even been a lesson for her dagger work!

She huffed.

Well she didn't need him! She was a modern independent woman and she didn't need any man to tell her so. Even if the man constantly stared into her eyes like he saw something beautiful there.

Hermione blushed.

Oh bugger.

But forget it Granger, he's long gone now. You can't hold a man's attention forever. They start getting bored and wanting more and things just don't work out.

At least, that's what Hermione thought. And she might be right about most men. But not about Ska'ra. He was a desert warrior—stubborn to a fault, and he'd set his eyes on treasure.

The dusky skinned man gathered his courage and approached the gold mage just minutes after her self-talk. He watched her work a bit before he cleared his throat, enamored with her movements—she was like a little bird, flitting about and curious and cautious.

She spun with wide eyes, blinking up at him as she leaned back and braced herself against the table. "Ska'ra! You startled me!"

"Forgive me," he said quietly, seriously.

She blinked some more, blushing and straightening and stammering. "Of course, there's nothing to it. I'm being silly." And then she cleared her throat and looked away.

"You are not silly woman. You are strong smart woman but do not know sometimes that I…" he stopped and could not think of the proper word.

But Hermione was looking at him again, confused but listening.

Ska'ra huffed and stepped closer. "_I_ think you're beautiful."

Hermione gasped.

Ska'ra took another step towards her, "I want to gift you to make you smile, I want to hold your hand and look at the stars, I want to tell you you're pretty and have sun eyes and have you believe me, I want to promise myself to you so you'll know I'll never stray, I want to—"

Her hand on his lips startled him into stopping, and he gaped at the golden witch who was blushing and so close to him. "Ska'ra…that sounds pretty wonderful." And she smiled at him.

He grinned and took her hand away from his lips, twining his fingers with hers.

Finally, he had mastered his speech to communicate with the mage!


End file.
